I wanted a design for the front of a knitting notebook and after doodling a few different ideas, I came up with this sweet heart. The embroidered chain stitch resembles knitting when they’re put right next to each other, so it was the obvious choice for a knitting notebook. Here are some instructions for making your own little heart!

Materials
-a tool to make small holes in paper; I use this Martha Stewart Screw Punch (affiliate link), but you could use a sharp needle + something to “hammer” it or an awl
-pencil
-about 3 yards of worsted weight yarn
-yarn needle that will fit through the holes you make
-graph paper (the paper I used is 5 squares per inch)
-card stock or whatever you want to embroider your design on

The Design

I used graph paper to plot out my design evenly. Place the graph paper with your design on the card stock where you want to place your stitches. Use the screw punch or awl to punch holes (you’ll want to put a self-healing cutting mat, or other board you don’t care about indenting, under your paper). The holes will aid you in keeping the chain stitches straight. If you are already an embroidery master, you can probably freehand them!

On the other hand, if you have never embroidered the chain stitch, I have outlined the steps below:

1. Bring about half of the yarn through the bottom center hole from back to front.
2. Go back through from front to back in the same space, but do not pull the yarn all the way through.
3. Come back up through the next hole up AND through the first loop you made.
4. Pull the yarn all the way through, tightening the first loop/stitch.

Repeat steps 2-4 for the embroidered chain stitch. I got into a habit of making two loops and using the second loop to tighten the first, like this:

At the end of the column (and the rest of the columns), finish the stitch by going down into the same hole, over the last loop, instead of through it, like this:

To make the next column, weave the yarn through the back of the stitches toward the bottom:

Work the next column and continue until all columns on this half of the heart are complete.

Weave in this end of the yarn through the back of the stitches:

Use the other half of the yarn to work the second half of the heart. Weave in your yarn when you’re done and that’s it!

Here is my [handmade] notebook:

I filled it with knitter’s graph paper and stitched it up by hand. That screw punch I linked above REALLY comes in handy for projects like this!

You could use this tutorial to make a lovely Valentine’s Day card! You can make other designs, as well, just be sure to have at least two dots per column when you are plotting it out on graph paper. I want to do a set of scissors! If I can come up with a few designs, I’ll make another post to share!

Mother’s Day is this Sunday! I’m going to plant a rose bush (or 3) for my mom, but every year I also get the grandmas a photo book (standard 8″x11″ from Snapfish) filled with photos of their grandsons. Because who do moms love more than their own kids? Their GRANDKIDS. It’s true.

Anyway, I’ve had the books for a few days and I’ve been trying to think of how to wrap them. I’ve done wrapping paper, decorated kraft paper, and even scrap fabric in the past. This year, I went with vintage silk scarves. I had two sizes. One was a big 36″x36″ square and the other (this one!) was a bit smaller, at 21″x21″. Here’s how I wrapped it:

1. Place the book face down on the scarf with the edges of the book facing the corners of the scarf. Tie a knot with the 2 corners on the short side of the book.
2. Flip the whole thing over and a tie a knot with the adjacent corners. This is the “front.” Optionally, you can tuck in the little flaps on the back knot. If your scarf is little, like mine, you’ll be able to see some of the book poking through, like this. I rather like the texturing coming through from the linen book cover.

Finish it off with a pretty tag. I wrote out the word mom on a piece of cardstock, poked holes with my embroidery needle, then used two strands of floss to trace my letters. It took 10 minutes tops!

Are you doing anything special for your mom or mom-like figure in your life this weekend?

1. Adhere your heart to your coaster with a small piece of tape. Mark the “corners” of the heart by placing a ruler across the tile diagonally and making small marks on the edges.
2. Working with a LONG piece of floss (leave the non-working tail connected to the rest of your floss), insert the needle at the bottom tip of the heart, from front to back.
3. Bring the floss back over and insert about 1/8″ from first spot. Continue bringing the floss to the front and stitching at evenly-spaced (as even as you can muster) intervals along the edge of your heart.

4. When you get to a corner, stitch in the spot, then come up along the adjacent edge and stitch into the same space.
5. Continue stitching along this side until you get to the next corner. Stitch into that space, bring the floss back over along the adjacent edge and stitch into the same spot. Continue stitching until you run out of floss. If you get back to the beginning, stitch into the first spot, then knot the ends together and weave them under the stitches on the back. You’re done!

If you run out of floss, follow steps 6-7:

6. Cut a long piece of floss from your non-working end and re-thread your needle with it. ON THE BACK of the coaster, bring the now working thread through the first two or so stitches, then start embroidering up the side, the same way you did the first half of the coaster.
7. When you get to your original thread, knot the ends together and weave them under the stitches on the back. Now, you’re done!

Like I said above, use them as coasters or little pieces of art! You could use this same method to embroider on cardstock to make a lovely Valentine’s Day card. I’m going to make some for my boys!

I wanted to embroidery a doily. Then I thought about how delicate crocheting a doily is and how embroidering one would probably make me mad. SO, I stretched this lovely doily (that I had 3 of!) over some vintage fabric in an embroidery hoop and started embroidering on it.

I just free-formed it, I guess. I used the openings in the lace to determine my pattern. I only used the back-stitch and ended up with something that sort of resembles a traditional crocheted chevron pattern.

Can you see it?? The chevrons/ripples/whatever? The pattern also kind of resembles an Easter egg, no? Like if you view it from the top? Please tell me I’m not hallucinating that effect!

I finished it off with a vintage button, that was part of a set I bought at an antique store a couple years ago.

It’s all nestled in a cherry-stained embroidery hoop.

Making this was totally relaxing. Following the doily pattern was stimulating, but easy. If you have a doily hanging about that is nice, but with no real purpose, I suggest doing this! The effect is nice and you can leave your favorite parts (in my case, the pineapples!) alone.

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